PENN is one of the most storied surnames in the history of the United States, after William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. The name originates primarily in England, where variant forms of the name were PENNE and PEN. There may be unrelated Penn ancestral lineages (that's one of the things we're trying to see). Many Penn descendants in the United States arise from two distinct branches that settled in colonial Maryland and Virginia by 1695. This purpose of this project is to study the surname PENN, both in Y-DNA (male patrilineal line) and autosomal DNA (all the non-sex chromosomes). This means that the project is open to both men and women who have conducted these tests.